Main Street shop offers more than just yarn

The color. It’s the first thing you notice when you walk into Camas Creek Yarn on Main Street in Kalispell. From artwork on the walls to the rows and rows of yarn bins and material selections, you can’t escape the color. It’s a beautiful atmosphere that’s also changing and growing.

Camas Creek Yarn will celebrate its seventh year in business in November. They’ve been in the same historic building from the beginning — 338 Main Street — but everything else has been in a near constant state of evolution.

According to owner Melanie Cross, it’s been an exciting adventure so far. She and her husband and co-owner, Andy Hurst, are looking forward to what’s to come.

“We started as just a simple knitting and crocheting store,” Cross said. “Then about three years ago we introduced felting classes and now we’re doing everything.”

“Everything” is the best way to describe what Camas Creek has to offer. While the primary focus of the shop remains knitting and crocheting, the store has expanded far beyond felting.

For the past several years Cross has worked hard to grow their Collegiate Yarn and Knitting Kits line. What started as a couple of customer requests for team colors and logos transformed into a stream of trademark licensing permissions, meetings and collaborations with colleges, and the building of one of Camas Creek’s most popular products from the ground up. Today the store offers kits with patterns and/or college trademark colored yarn for more than 30 colleges from around the United States.

Camas Creek’s newest addition is a collaboration with the Stitchery Cottage, owned and operated by Micki Gette. This summer Gette set up shop inside Camas Creek and hasn’t looked back.

“I think I was making sales before I was even set up,” Gette said. “This location makes a huge difference; we get a good amount of foot traffic.”

Cross and Gette are both optimistic about the new collaboration.

“[Gette] is a terrific lady, and very talented,” Cross said.

Gette offers weekly classes on a variety of needlepoint arts, including counted cross-stitch, needlepoint, needle tatting and shuttle tatting. She also hopes to add a “Stitch of the Week” class soon, and possibly even more if the interest is there.

Gette offers a wide variety of materials and services, but strives to keep the price “realistic” at the same time.

“It is a challenge dealing with an art that you’re trying to rejuvenate, but make it economical, too,” Gette said. “The cost of needlepoint is out of sight in many places. The expense has made the art almost go away.”

Gette is hopeful her new location will encourage people in the community to learn more about the craft of needlepoint, either by taking a class or just coming in to browse.

“I’m very blessed to be here, I feel,” Gette said.

Cross said she has enjoyed watching Main Street grow and develop in the years since they opened, and welcomes opportunities for new partnerships and events. Later this month, in fact, Camas Creek is teaming up with the Kalispell Brewing Company for an inaugural “Yarn Tasting” event.

“In the spirit of Oktoberfest, we thought it would be fun to sample German needles and yarn,” Cross said. “And of course, beer.”

The event is Monday, Oct. 27, at 6 p.m. at the Kalispell Brewing Company on Main Street in Kalispell. It will also feature door prizes and store discounts, as well as the release of the “Growler Guard Kit” dedicated to the Kalispell Brewing Company.

“It’s usable and cute,” Cross said of the growler guard. “And it works. It keeps Andy’s beer really cold!”

One of Camas Creek’s most popular annual events, a take-and-make charity drive, is coming up in November.

Cross said that anytime during the month, knitters who wish to participate can come into the store for a free skein of yarn. They are asked to use the material to make a hat, gloves, or scarf for local children in need of good winter clothing. When they bring the finished product back to the store as a donation, they receive another free skein of yarn.

“It’s an incredibly rewarding project,” Cross said.

Camas Creek also offers several classes each week and new projects every month, where crafters can learn everything from basic knitting and crocheting to silk dyeing, felting scarves or booties, creating quilted lattice ascots and traveling jewelry cases.

Local artwork and photography for sale line the walls of the store. In the summer months, Cross said the store brings in additional “Made in Montana” products that are popular with tourists.

“We are a very community-based store,” Cross said. “We want to keep a local focus.”

The people in the community and their love for the arts, according to Cross, is what continues to make Camas Creek a success.

“Knitting and crocheting is a form of stress relief,” Cross said. “And we need to unplug sometimes, as a society I mean.”

“You can’t buy what you can make,” Cross added. “People’s time is what’s valuable now. And everyone gets really excited when they get something homemade.”

Entertainment editor Stefanie Johnson can be reached at 758-4439 or ThisWeek@dailyinterlake.com.